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Year: 2000
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Essential Physics 1, is an intensive introduction to classical and special relativity, Newtonian dynamics and gravitation, Einsteinian dynamics and gravitation, and wave motion. Mathematical methods are discussed, as needed; they include: elements of differential geometry, linear operators and matrices, ordinary differential equations, calculus of variations, orthogonal functions and Fourier series, and non-linear equations for chaotic systems. The contents of this book can be taught in one semester. It is a book for first-year college students who have an interest in pursuing a career in Physics or a closely related field.
Throughout the decade of the 1990’s, I taught a one-year course of a specialized nature to students who entered Yale College with excellent preparation in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences, and who expressed an interest in Physics or a closely related field. The level of the course was that typified by the Feynman Lectures on Physics. My one-year course was necessarily more restricted in content than the two-year Feynman Lectures. The depth of treatment of each topic was limited by the fact that the course consisted of a total of fifty-two lectures, each lasting one-and-a-quarter hours. The key role played by invariants in the Physical Universe was constantly emphasized . The material that I covered each Fall is presented, almost verbatim, in this book.
Essential Physics 1, is an intensive introduction to classical and special relativity, Newtonian dynamics and gravitation, Einsteinian dynamics and gravitation, and wave motion. Mathematical methods are discussed, as needed; they include: elements of differential geometry, linear operators and matrices, ordinary differential equations, calculus of variations, orthogonal functions and Fourier series, and non-linear equations for chaotic systems. The contents of this book can be taught in one semester. It is a book for first-year college students who have an interest in pursuing a career in Physics or a closely related field.
Throughout the decade of the 1990’s, I taught a one-year course of a specialized nature to students who entered Yale College with excellent preparation in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences, and who expressed an interest in Physics or a closely related field. The level of the course was that typified by the Feynman Lectures on Physics. My one-year course was necessarily more restricted in content than the two-year Feynman Lectures. The depth of treatment of each topic was limited by the fact that the course consisted of a total of fifty-two lectures, each lasting one-and-a-quarter hours. The key role played by invariants in the Physical Universe was constantly emphasized . The material that I covered each Fall is presented, almost verbatim, in this book.